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Cities, by their very nature, point us to the contradictions and paradoxes that are an inseparable aspect of our world. To love cities - as the Leadership Foundations global network seeks to embody - is to embrace these contradictions. Join us in this episode where we explore the contradiction and tension between two sources of authority - the Street and the Academy - and how both have something to teach us about our urban world.

How do we navigate today's urban world - holding the bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other? How do we navigate the tension of contemplation and action, street and the academy in our active engagement in the city? Join us for this new City as Playground series as we'll be exploring these tensions by engaging thought leaders and practitioners from across the world and throughout the Leadership Foundations' global network.

G.K. Chesterton once wrote, “The reason we fly from the city is not in reality that it is not poetical; it is that its poetry is too fierce, too fascinating and too practical in its demands.”* In this 2021 finale podcast episode, we welcome back Fr. Steve Lantry, SJ for a special Advent/Christmas "Praying with Poetry" episode. Fr. Lantry explores with us how we can use poetry as a tool to enrich and deepen our prayer life. He guides us through three groups of poems (listed below) on the themes of Relationality, Paradox, and Challenge & Hope.   Poems cited: The Hidden Singer by Wendell Berry from A Part, 1980, or, Collected Poems, pp.207-8 Love is the way messengers… by Rumi 1207-1273, from The Soul of Rumi, p. 33, translated by Coleman Barks & John Moyne When school and mosque and minaret... by Rumi, 1207-1273, from A Year with Rumi, p.233 Those who think the heart is only in the chest... by Rumi, 1207-1274, from Rumi: Hidden Music, p. 54, translated by Azima Melita Kolin & Maryam Mafi everywhere, everywhere by Charles Bukowski, from What Matters Most Is How Well You Walk Through the Fire, p. 94 One song by Rumi, 1207-1273,from A Year with Rumi, p. 214,rendered by Coleman Barks When We See God by Edward Hirsch Hope by Lisel Mueller, from Good Poems, p. 224, ed. by Garrison Keillor       Sometimes  by Sheenagh Pugh, from Good Poems, p. 215, ed. by Garrison Keillor We have fished all night… by Sr. Annette Moran, CSJ, from A Woman at the Well, p. 55, Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondolet, St. Louis Province, 2009 *Lunacy and Letters by G.K. Chesterton, p. 60  

Can you see a playground amidst the countless smells, sights, and sounds of New York City?  Jeremy Del Rio, Executive Director of Thrive Collective, Leadership Foundation of NYC, joins us to describe how this vision of the City as a Playground is coming to life in the City that Never Sleeps. He discusses the many ways in which Thrive Collective is uncovering and unleashing the beauty and creativity that already resides in the city through mural painting, education, mentoring, and nurturing collaborative spaces amongst the least likely of partners.

Can you imagine a city that is just? A city where everyone - regardless of background, birth family, race, or creed - receives what they need to fully thrive as human beings... Justin Beene, President of the Leadership Foundation of Grand Rapids, Center for Community Transformation (GRCCT), joins us to explore the shape of God's justice in his city.  Dr. Beene describes how GRCCT is seeking to extend opportunity in a city ranked amongst the worst economically for African-Americans.  Statistic cited from Forbes Magazine, 2015.  Grand Rapids Center for Community Transformation

At the center of transformation in our world's cities is leadership - women and men who deeply love their city and are committed to it becoming more like a playground. Join us as Melody Rodriguez and Alma Vargas from Proyecto Mole in Tacoma, Washington talk about developing young people as leaders who are equipped to love and transform their communities.

In this year-end series of 2021, we're returning to our roots, letting our imagination guide us as we explore more deeply the animating metaphor of Leadership Foundations: our world's cities as playgrounds. Join us as we hear from LF leaders from various cities as they imagine their own city as a playground, a place where vulnerable and marginalized people are able to fully flourish and thrive.   Guests: Nahshon Nicks, First Coast Leadership Foundation Anthony Branch, Memphis Leadership Foundation Courtney Dugstad, Next Chapter Ministries, Leadership Foundation of Rochester, MN Carlos Huerta, Center for Community Transformation, Leadership Foundation of Fresno, CA City as Playground Recommendation: The Moral Imagination: the Art and Soul of Peacebuilding by John Paul Lederach

Can you imagine God's economy of abundance even in places where resources appear so scarce? Can you see it? Join us as we wrap up this City as Playground podcast series, Imagining Abundance, recapping our conversations of seeing abundance throughout the Leadership Foundations network in Bloemfontein, South Africa; Fresno, California; and Philippi, West Virginia.

The story of West Virginia is one often told only describing its entrenched poverty, widespread opioid use, and coal -dependent economy.   Ruston Seaman, president of New Vision, Leadership Foundation of Phillipi, West Virginia tells us a different story.   Join us as Ruston describes his community through the lens of God's abundance, seeing it filled with human ingenuity, resources, and built-in assets capable of providing hopeful futures for all its residents.

In Fresno, the Center for Community Transformation Leadership Foundation is reimagining the local economy of God's abundance. An economy where the city is full of practicing and prospective entrepreneurs starting and sustaining small businesses of every shape... A local economy nourished by a vision of God's economy - one where there is enough for everyone, particularly those most vulnerable and marginalized.

Homelessness, prostitution, government corruption. Amidst some of these dire circumstances in South Africa, only exacerbated by COVID-19, the Towers of Hope Leadership Foundation is living into God's economy of Abundance.  Learn how they are imagining abundance in their city - where the most impoverished receive all that they need to lead flourishing lives of promise.

Can you imagine our world's cities as places of abundance? Places where God's excessive love for God's children is on full display? Where everyone, including the most vulnerable, receive all that they need to lead lives full of promise? Join us this series as we explore what God's invitation of moving from scarcity to abundance might look like in our own lives, and the kind of promise that such a movement holds for our urban spaces.